Monday, February 28, 2011

A while back I posted on the Facebook Group wall that I was going through my entire music collection, trying to gather all the tracks that acted as ASMR triggers, listening to them, and making a note of them.

This is part of a practice that I’ve decided to call “track spotting”. Whether there’s another name for this, I’m not sure. You come across a song of any genre, and then just make a note of which song it is. People within the community often do this, and post their recommendations on Facebook, or favourite YouTube music videos and the like, which work for them.

But delving deeper into this track spotting (similar to the phrase “train spotting”) activity is actually finding the exact moment(s) in a song that cause a sensation. I’ve experimented with this, and often make a note of choruses, solos, and other changes in energy within a song that elicit ASMR. You often see this on YouTube where people leave comments, saying: “listen at 05:40, and you’ll see what I mean!”

You can obviously do this with YouTube videos and the like as well – it’s not just limited to songs. It’s then interesting to list the points of a song where you feel a hit, so to speak, and then recommend that song to someone. They then know what to look out for, and anticipate that moment in a song (which is a trigger in itself!), and when they finally reach that point in the song, it either works or it doesn’t. That depends on the person and their musical preferences, which should probably be established beforehand!

On a side note, yes, I’m aware that there is a growing concern online, revolving around the difference between ASMR and chills that some experience while listening to music, which has been covered in a recent study or two. But more on that in another post! Maybe it will be the subject of a future poll too.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Earlier on this month, I posted something about The Unnamed Feeling celebrating its first anniversary, having been founded in February 2010. Now as I suspected, the ASMR Group on Facebook which was founded by Jenn, AKA Envelope Nomia, is celebrating its first anniversary – not two weeks later.

There should be an event on the Facebook page, which you’ll be able to view if you belong to the group, informing you of this (look for it on the bottom left, or else it should appear on your profile page somewhere), and we’d be delighted if you attend (although you don’t really have to go anywhere). Just stop by the Facebook wall and drop a message or two.

The group is nearly at 700 members currently and growing – we’d like to thank you all for remaining with, and supporting us.

Monday, February 21, 2011

I was watching some program on the TV the other day – of those classic 90’s comedies with Steve Martin and Martin Short in it. I forget the name though. It’s either Father of the Bride or Parenthood with that guy*.

Anyway, when Martin Short’s character, Franck Eggelhoffer, turns to his German friend to communicate with him in private, neither of them are really speaking German. It’s just gibberish. And I started to tingle just listening to it.

This reminded me of years past when I heard people speaking in nonsensical gibberish, and how it made me feel. It wasn’t the typical schoolyard Pig Latin that kids spoke when they were young - which I disliked - but just random, unintelligible rubbish, so to speak. And it’s even more effective when you make it sound like it belongs to a particular language, by doing an accent, or employing the same sort of pronunciation and so on.

This also reminded me of when people speak in Tongues, also referred to as “Glossolalia”. I’m not knocking it, or religion in general, mind, but I know that my mother, who at one time was a devout Christian, spoke in tongues occasionally, and I often found myself asking her to do so just so I could get a hit, so to speak.

* No really, it was Father of the Bride. I looked it up. I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

I have made this post in order to try and explain the situation regarding the second video trial, which was originally scheduled to take place sometime in January.

The initial plan was to compile results from the first video trial in January, after the preliminary run had ended in December of last year, and then get the second trial running by the end of the month. I can post this without fear, seeing as it was explained in the newsletter you all received at the very end of December.

I know that many of you have been waiting, and anticipating this, but you might have noticed that January came and went, and there was no second trial.

The truth is that we are really trying to get our scheduled meetings sorted out. With the current research team all in vastly different time zones, it’s been amazingly difficult trying to get everyone in one place at the same time to discuss matters and get everything sorted out, so to speak – with meetings often getting postponed and the like, due to team members’ prior obligations and such.

So I wish to apologise, on behalf of the team, to you – the community – for our sluggishness. Some progress has been made on the results and so on from the first trial, but it’s proved to be more difficult with all the “micromanagement” and categorizing these results into the various hypotheses – which I’m sure you’ve heard mentioned before.

It’s February and I don’t see the second trial starting any time soon, but perhaps next month, March, will be doable (but no promises!). So please bear with us, as we try to finally just move on and get this trial started. Once again, I feel as though I have to apologise for any feelings of frustration and confusion (maybe even anger) this may have caused.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

This blog, the Unnamed Feeling, was formed in February 2010. That means that the site is now one year old, as it’s February 2011! As I recall, it was the thirteenth of Feb to be exact.

This month also marks the first anniversary of the ASMR group on Facebook (I think it might be the 25th, not sure), and I guess therefore one year since the beginning of the concerted effort to dig deeper into the meaning of what has become known as ASMR, among other names.

The ASMR forums also celebrated it’s six month marker at the end of last month, seeing as they were originally formed in July 2010. So the beginning of the year is certainly an important time as far as anniversaries go!

Thanks to all who have visited the blog, left thoughtful comments, and have gone on to find the other sites in the ASMR network. I’m proud that this blog serves as one of the chief places that people find out more about this phenomenon and the ever-growing community.

I know it’s very clichéd, but here’s to another year, and many more after that!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Over the past month or so, a local channel on DSTV (Vuzu, channel 123), has been showing repeats of the classic cartoon series known as Futurama – created by Matt Groening, also responsible for The Simpsons.

Just the other night I was watching the episode, “The Deep South” (originally from 2000), where Fry and the others went fishing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, only to end up being dragged to the depths, right the ocean floor, by a huge colossal-mouth bass which Bender caught using Hermes’ Manwich.

It was here that Fry discovered a mermaid, Umbriel (a reference to Ariel from The Little Mermaid), and she led him back to her home, which was discovered to be the Lost City of Atlanta (as in Atlanta, Georgia). At one point, the mayor of the city, Umbriel’s father, was prompted to tell the story of what happened to the city, which many only knew because of its airport. It was here that a man by the name of Donovan Leitch made a guest appearance, came on the screen in cartoon appearance and recounted the events which led to it being buried under the sea. But I tell you, he had a magnificent voice, and I instantly started to get that tingling sensation. It was the last thing I expected, but I just let myself go an enjoyed it for the minute or so that it lasted.

I’ll admit that I haven’t heard of the man before, but from what I’ve learned, he’s a British singer who many compare to the likes of Bob Dylan. I would love to listen to some of his songs, or even just listen to the guy talk some more!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I remember once, last year during one of our team meetings, I mentioned that I had a headache. Domagoj suggested, rather tongue in cheek I suppose, that I should use ASMR to get rid of it.

But I think it might well work.

The other night I had a hell of a headache. And it turned out it wasn’t really a headache. It was a migraine, right over my right eye – and these are much worse. I took a couple of Panados (which is kind of like a Painkiller or Aspirin – I’m not sure if they’re sold elsewhere on planet Earth), but I still had it quite badly.

I took to switching the lights off, because of the photosensitivity that usually accompanies a migraine (for me anyway), and at one point I actually went and sat in the bathroom, because I felt quite nauseous, and I was prepared for the worst.

Then after that I lay on my bed in the dark for a while, but it didn’t get much better. So after returning to my study and sitting at my workstation, I knew that I needed to attack this thing actively. So I went in to my private collection of tingle triggers, resorting to my hypnosis samples. As I sat there for a while, closing my eyes, I can honestly say that I started to feel better. The tingles, as expected, were more intense, almost as though my brain sensed that I needed an increase in chemical release in the body.

It could well have been the Panados that had kicked in and finally started to work, but in any case, if ever I get one of those terrible migraines again, I know exactly what to do! Even if it doesn’t get rid of the migraine, it did help me to just sit there and relax, as opposed to fidgeting; moving around, due to the intense pain I was feeling.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I just wanted to post this today, seeing as the blog has reached a considerable milestone. The Unnamed Feeling has reached 100 posts!

And this is just short of the blog’s one year anniversary, which will take place a week and a half from now. If I look at the dates on my archive, the first ever post was on the 13th of February 2010 – the day the blog was started. I know you probably thought I was going to say the day before…. *shhh*, some of us don’t support or celebrate “Hallmark Holidays”. :)

So in nearly a year, I’ve managed to belt out a hundred posts. I could have done more, but I have a habit of conserving my posts, and only posting twice a week. In the past on other blogs of mine, I’ve been able to reach a few hundred more in the same time period – but that requires a hell of a lot of effort and time.

Anyway, thanks to all who have dropped by the blog and read my posts, and stay tuned for the 1st anniversary too! By the way, The Facebook Group should be celebrating one year of being online too this month!

Site Updates

These are just mini-updates that I was too lazy or busy to make a post for. They also list changes or additions that have been made to the blog, for interest's sake and to follow how the blog is developing.